Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism

Abstract

“Unless the United States and its allies formulate a comprehensive response to terrorism, better balanced across a range of policy instruments, the results will be increasing international instability and long-term failure.” This is the assessment of Audrey Kurth Cronin of the Congressional Research Service, who traces the current terrorist backlash to the unintended negative consequences of globalization, “inherent weaknesses” in the Arab region, and the failure of the United States to address both. Cronin argues that the U.S. response to the growing terrorist threat has been “reactive and anachronistic,” relying on a state-centric strategy to tackle an essentially nonstate phenomenon. Cronin chides the United States for giving in to its “natural bias” of employing military power to achieve speedy results and recommends instead a forward-looking strategy based on “flexible, multifaceted responses that deliberately and effectively exploit avenues of globalization,” as well as greater reliance on “more subtle tools of domestic and international statecraft.